logo-loader

FTSE 100 moves into consolidation mode after bright start

Published: 23:18 06 Oct 2014 AEDT

iron_ore_railway_western_australia_350_543289edbf160

Leading UK equities are consolidating early gains.

The FTSE 100 is up 29 at 6,557, with risers among Footsie constituents outnumbering fallers by more than two-to-one.

BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) reverses early losses after announcing plans to cut unit costs at Western Australia Iron Ore by at least 25%, and flagging the potential to increase capacity there by 65 million tonnes per year at a very low capital cost.

Shares are up 1.5%, while elsewhere in the sector Fresnillo (LON:FRES) is up 1% after RBS Capital Markets moved the stock to “outperform” from “sector perform”.

Energy group BG Group (LON:BG.) is lifted 2% by repayment of US$350mln in debt by the Egyptian government. This reduces the company's domestic receivables balance in Egypt to around US$1.2 billion.

Tesco (LON:TSCO) moved 2.1% higher after beefing up its board with two non-executive directors.

Richard Cousins, chief executive of contract caterer Compass Group, and Mikael Ohlsson, until recently the head honcho at furniture chain IKEA, are the two new boys on the board.

Meanwhile, heavyweight broker JP Morgan Cazenove has pared its price target for Tesco to 165p from 185p, a few pence below the current 176p trading level.

Away from the blue chips, Boxhill Technology (LON:BOX) adds one-third to its market capitalisation after issuing a statement confirming it knows of no reason for the recent share price rise.

Petroceltic (LON:PCI) surges 23% to 218.75p after Dragon Oil (LON:DGO) confirmed it is in ‘detailed’ discussions to buy the company at around 230p a share.

Iofina (LON:IOF) is off the top but still up 20% after it said iodine production in September hit target, while a preliminary permit has been awarded for its water supply operation in Montana.

Among the mining community, Beowulf Mining (LON:BEM) is having an epic day, jumping 15% after reporting some of the best indications of metal yet from drilling at the southern portion of its Kallak iron ore project in Sweden.

Herencia Resources (LON:HER) edges up 1.8% after it announced plans to kick off a second drill programme at its potentially game changing Picachos project in northern Chile, with the aim of producing a resource estimate in the first quarter of 2015.

International Mining & Infrastructure Corporation (LON:IMIC) is down in the dumps after an updated resource estimate for the flagship Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon disappointed.

The company has lost almost a third of its value, despite reporting a 68% increase in total direct shipping ore indicated resource to 252 million tonnes at 43.2% iron.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

13 hours, 34 minutes ago